ASUU strike: Borrow money to pay up, don’t gamble with our future – Adebanjo urges FG

Elder statesman and a chieftain of the Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Ayo Adebanjo, has expressed worries over the lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
Adebanjo said if necessary, the Federal Government should borrow money to meet the demands of the union so students could go back to school.
He observed that the ongoing strike action was equivalent to gambling with the future of students because of FG’s refusal to implement the agreement it entered with the union few years back.

His words, ‘‘If it means borrowing money to sanitise the university system, the Federal Government should do it. What the people (ASUU) are saying is that the strike is not only about money but to revive the nation’s university education to make it world class. Whatever it will cost the government to stop the strike, it must do it. We should not gamble with the future of our future leaders’’.
He further hinted that ‘‘For you (government) to tell them to come and renegotiate after you failed to implement the agreement you made with them in 2009 is not right. Things are not done that way. How are we sure you will fulfil the terms of any new agreement you make with the union?’’
The Afenifere chief lamented that 53 years after Nigeria’s independent, the education sector was not up to standard yet.
ASUU embarked on strike since July 1 to protest the non-implementation of the key issues contained in the 2009 agreement it made with the FG.

ASUU strike latest: Lecturers threaten to withdraw from Suswam’s committee

The union accused the committee of insincerity and distortion of a technical subcommittee’s report

 The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has threatened to pull out from the Presidential Committee on the Implementation of the Committee of Needs Assessment of Nigeria (public) Universities, CNANU.
The threat was contained in a letter dated August 20 and signed by the ASUU National President, Isa Fagge.
The letter was addressed to the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on the Implementation of the CNANU report, Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State.
In the letter, seen by PREMIUM TIMES, the lecturers, who have been on strike for over eight weeks, alleged a distortion of the report of the Technical Subcommittee of the CNANU Implementation Committee; and cited a number of examples to support their claims.
“For our union, the setting up of a committee to implement the recommendation is a very welcome development. We are, however, alarmed by recent development in the work of the committee. We find it necessary to make the observations in order to stop the committee from derailing from its core mandate and creating even deeper crises in the university system,” Mr. Fagge said.
Among the issues raised by the lecturers is that of perceived mismanagement of funds; with the union saying, “Expending N50billion to construct 35,000 bed space hostels across 25 universities will be ridiculously scandalous since the same amount can be used to construct 125,000 bed space hostels across 51 universities.”
The lecturers, who have vowed not to resume work until the government implements a 2009 agreement it had with the union, said they would “be unable to continue in the membership of the Committee until the issues raised are properly addressed.”
Below is a text of ASUU’s letter to the committee chairman:
The Chairman
Presidential Committee on the Implementation of the CNANU Report
Dear Sir,
DISTORTION OF THE REPORT OF THE TECHNICAL SUBCOMMITTEE OF CNANU IMPLEMENTATION COMMITTEE
Recall that the Committee of Needs Assessment of Nigerian (Public)Universities, CNANU, was set up by Government as a result of the dispute between Government and ASUU in respect of the funding requirements needed to arrest the rot and reverse the decay in the Nigerian University System. Recall also that the Committee submitted its report to Federal Executive Council, FEC and National Economic Council, NEC and a Technical Committee was set up by NEC to draw up the action-plan to guide government in implementing the recommendations of the Report. Recall also that the Technical Committee had submitted its report to NEC, which was approved and sent to FEC. Recall also that FEC had approved the report and the President had also approved the memo sent to him in respect of the Report of the Technical Committee.
For our Union, the setting up of a committee to implement the recommendations is a very welcome development. We are however alarmed by recent developments in the work of the Committee. We therefore wish to make the following observations with regards to the workings of the Committee. We find it necessary to make the observations in order to stop the Committee from derailing from its core mandate and creating even deeper crises in the University System.
ESTABLISHMENT OF OPERATIONAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY
1. We are worried that the Committee is yet to start working on the Technical Report of the NEC Committee that was approved by the NEC and FEC. We believe that the approved report together with the Main Report and the Individual University Report should form the basis of what the Committee will be doing.
2. We are concerned that the Committee, four weeks after its inauguration, is yet to come up with a roadmap for implementation of the CNANU Report. We are worried that there is no plan on the ground on what to do with the other numerous recommendations besides the ones that the Committee had chosen to commence with.
3. While we believe that the committee must start from somewhere, a general plan of action is necessary for the success of the committee.
SOURCE(S) OF THE FUND
4. Our Union is very apprehensive of the manner in which the sources of the initial N100billion to be used for the stimulation of the process are shrouded in secrecy. We believe that monies that already belong to the university system should not be blocked and recycled. This will not only be counterproductive but will brew even deeper crises in the system. ASUU will not accept this.
QUANTUM OF THE FUND
5. We observe that the Committee is so far mentioning only N100billion. If the implementation is to be related to the funding requirements in the 2009 ASUU/FGN Agreement and the Jan 2012 MoU, what is due for 2012 and 2013 is N500billion not N100billion. Only the provision of this sum will meet the immediate needs of the universities.
DISBURSEMENT
6. We are also concerned that a clear procedure or process for assessing the funds by the universities is yet to be defined. This concern is even more germane given the statement of the Chairman of the Committee (during the last meeting on Monday 19th Aug. 2013) that the Committee is taking some documents to the Due Process Office. We hasten to add that while due process must be followed, it is the sole responsibility of benefitting universities to respect all the provisions of the Procurement Act. The meaning of your Committee going to the Due Process Office is that it is the one that will be responsible for awarding contracts.
We want to make it clear that this will never be acceptable to our Union. We believe that monies meant to fund projects in Universities should be sent to the Universities just as it is the practice with TETFund, Capital appropriation, etc.
MUTILATION OF THE DISBURSEMENT OF THE FIRST TRANCHE
6. We are also deeply concerned about the rationale of mutilating the report of the technical subcommittee of your Committee by the Secretariat. For instance the entire structure of allocation to universities as well as to projects has been grossly distorted without any clear justification. The index of enrolment used to classify the universities has been set aside. The number of benefiting universities has also been changed without justification. ASUU will not accept this.
7. We are worried that instead of allocating N1.2billion each to construct 3,000 bed space hostels to the 10 Category1 universities, N1.0billion for 2,500 bed space hostel to the 16 Category2 universities, N500million to construct 1,250 bed space hostels in the 12 Category3 universities and N250million each to construct 625 bed space hostels in the 13 category4 universities, the Secretariat has changed that to constructing 1,400 bedspace hostels in 25 universities at the cost of N2b each. We see no rationale in this. Expending N50billion to construct 35,000 bedspace hostels across 25 universities will be ridiculously scandalous since the same amount can be used to construct 125,000 bedspace hostels across 51 universities. The standard cost of building a bed space ranges from N200,000.00 to a maximum of N400,000.00. This is even more worrisome given the tangential suggestions made by the Chairman that only monies for refurbishment will be sent to universities while the rest will be handled centrally.
EXCLUSION OF SOME UNIVERSITIES
8. We are concerned that 22 universities are excluded from the allocation for refurbishment of laboratories and libraries and 3 universities from the allocation for refurbishment of lecture theatres and lecture rooms. 24 universities are denied allocation for construction of libraries and laboratories while 2 are denied allocation for construction of new lecture theatres and lecture rooms. 26 universities are denied allocation for construction of hostel. This is in spite of the identified needs in the individual university report and the approved criterion that made them eligible to draw. More worrisome is the fact that the allocation to other universities does not seem to be in agreement with the approved enrolment criteria.
OMNIBUS PROJECT ADMINISTRATION COST
9. We have also noted, albeit quizzically, that some N1.975 billion was allocated to the ‘62nd university’ called ‘Project Admin Cost’. This makes no meaning to our Union. The Committee is not supposed to administer any project. It is supposed to distribute funds that will finance projects to universities. We see no justification for allocating an amount more than what is allocated to 4 universities put together, to a bogus ‘Project Admin Cost’. The N100b meant for universities as first tranche should go to universities in toto. No pinching, no pilfering.
In view of the forgoing, ASUU will be unable to continue in the membership of the Committee until the issues raised are properly addressed.

NANS Blames ASUU Strike for Increase in Crime Rate

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has linked the rising wave of crime in the last two months to the idleness of students, who are currently bearing the brunt of the strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The students’ body, therefore, appealed to the striking union and the federal government to resume negotiations and ensure quick resolution of the strike, which is now in its 13th week.

The acting Senate President of NANS, Mr. John Shima, while  addressing a press conference in Abuja  Monday, lamented that about three years of study time had been lost to strikes in the last 10 years.

The lost time, he said, was enough to graduate from an undergraduate course in other climes.

"ASUU and the federal government should go back to the negotiating table. Even after wars, issues are resolved at the round table, Nigerian students are tired of sitting at home," he said.

Shima added that although the lecturers were protesting the decline of infrastructure in the nation's universities, the decline was not limited to the universities alone. This, he said, had led to the continual drop in Nigeria's standard of tertiary education.

"We call for a NEEDS Assessment in our polytechnics and Colleges of Education as was done for the universities to ascertain their level of decay. This may also stop unions in these institutions from embarking on their own strikes," he said.

The students’ body appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to urgently appoint a substantive minister to head the education ministry.

The candidate, it added, should be an individual from the education sector, who had exhibited the necessary competence, clear understanding of the sector and has the capacity to command the respect of stakeholder unions in the sector.

"We commend the out-gone education minister, Prof. Ruqqayatu Rufa’i, for doing her best while she served as minister," Shima said.

However, a mild drama ensued at the press briefing, which had to be truncated after a young man who claimed to be NANS Public Relations Officer,  Olaogun Victor,  interrupted the proceedings on the grounds that his presence was not acknowledged.
A group of young men also protested that the press briefing was being done without their knowledge.

Meanwhile, the Ogun State chapter of ASUU and the civil society group have concluded plans to stage a mass protest on Thursday in Abeokuta, the state capital, over the lingering strike.

Addressing journalists in Abeokuta yesterday, the Secretary of Joint Action Front (JAF), the pro-labour civil society component of the Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO), Mr. Abiodun Aremu, said JAF was committed to the nationwide, zonal and state protests until the government was compelled to give public education the priority attention it deserves.

According to him, governments at all levels in the country operate anti-poor policies, saying this was clearly expressed in their lack of disposition to public education.

He said: "Funding of Public Education is not given the proper priority it deserves, because the children of those in governments and their friends are being trained in private schools in Nigeria and foreign countries with the looted public funds."
He, therefore, said government should be blamed for all the crises in the education sector, including the incessant strikes, stressing that: "the unions in education sector are not making fresh demands."

He said: "They are on strike because government failed to implement agreements they freely entered into and signed with the unions. For example, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has been on a number of strikes since 2009 because government failed to implement the Teacher Special Scale (TSS) that was a product of agreement with government in 1992."

Aremu noted that the deplorable state of tertiary institutions across the country was such that they were near total collapse except there was urgent intervention.

He said: "As at date, JAF makes bold to state that the federal government has refused to implement the agreement, whose funding component ought to have been concluded in 2011. Instead, the federal government tries to smartly cover up and deceive the public, in the guise of government’s being broke and provide N100 billion out of the agreed N1.518trillion.

“The other N30 billion the federal government said it has also approved is said to be for the earned allowances of N92 billion it owed. This is the fallacy of the N130 billion the federal government claimed it has approved for immediate release," he added.

Tags: ASUU STRIKE, Featured, News, Nigeria

Why Nigeria is disqualified for US DV-2015, Consul-General explains

0
The United States Consul- General, Jeffrey Hawkins yesterday reiterated Nigeria’s disqualification for the 2015 Diversity Visa lottery. He also revealed that Nigerians were over half a million in the United States and the most educated African immigrants as studies have shown.
Nigeria and 18 other countries have been advised against applying for the 2015 Diversity visa as they have been fully represented in the immigrants group in the United States.
In a press briefing held yesterday at the US consulate on Victoria Island, Lagos and simultaneously in Abuja, Hawkins said that 50,000 Diversity visas have been made available for countries worldwide where the citizens do not have strong immigration ties with the USA.
He also said that it was not advisable for Nigerians to still apply for Diversity Visas to the USA since there has been over 50,000 immigrants from the country over a period of five years, nevertheless, Nigerians can apply for other types of visa to the States.
When asked if America has security fears as over half a million Nigerians are in the States, Jeffrey replied that it was not an issue of security, but a growing relationship between the two countries which he hopes would

ASUU strike: The untold story

by ’Sola Fagorusi (sfagorusi@gmail.com)
The Academic Staff Union of Universities has been on strike for 56 days. It translates that public universities students across the country have had to put the noble quest for knowledge within the four walls of a university on hold. As an undergraduate, I once had a rare privilege to be at one of ASUU’s meetings and what I took away from the experience was the quality blend of arguments and counter arguments on the issues discussed.
It’s safe to say that the body had rightly put the issues that triggered her latest strike under a high resolution intellectual microscope before instructing her membership to embark on strike when it did on 1st of July this year. What is largely missing is the fulsome information about the details of the strike on the website of the body.
Like a few others, I have tried engaging a number of students who are the victims-in-chief of the on-going strike on what the bone of contentions are; the offers and explanations are varied. I am not sure of why the website of the body has been on break in the midst of an on-going strike with several meetings, discussions and decision being made. I am certain that whoever monitors the back end of that site would have noticed a rise in the volume of hits on the site. And this is for a single reason – people are hungry for information.
In a new media age, it is assumed that a Google search or a simple search on a site like ASUU’s would give all the necessary information and timeline of this present strike and other strikes since this is not the first time that ASUU would be embarking on a strike on similar grounds. Like other Nigerians, what I have heard repeatedly is that this strike is about a renege on the 2009 agreement. No social media class or discussion would leave out the fact that information sharing and detailing is easier at this time given the diverse platforms allowing for same.
Unlike what one would have expected, especially since ASUU’s demand is also about demand for infrastructural upgrade in the universities, there has been apathy on the part of students to dutifully engage the public and government in support of a request which will majorly benefit them. But this will not happen when the information is scanty and the issues seem esoteric. Thanks to the traditional press coverage, those who seek to know find what they can.
The existence of a website by the body at www.asuunigeria.org is commendable. It however leaves much to be desired when the latest information on the site is about the 2011 strike which ASUU embarked on following a meeting from Tuesday November 29, to Thursday December 1, 2011 at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
ASUU’s Facebook page (if it’s the official one) however appears to have more on it that the site though there is no plug-in to it from the official website address. With a 20,476 following on its Facebook page, the site seems pretty active even if the last update was on the July 27, saying, “If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our students of tomorrow. We must move forward.” Its post on July 1, when the strike was declared, got the kind of attention one would expect on such page with 260 likes, 579 comments and 547 shares.
As lecturers to students who practically breathe social media, it is perhaps high time ASUU also took its social media engagements serious. Compared to its Anglophone neighbour, Ghana’s University Teachers’ Association of Ghana. ASUU’s effort is a giant leap. The Ghanaian umbrella body for academics in public universities also embarked on a strike on August 1st. With no website of social media presence to show for it, anyone attempting a chronology or analysis will solely have to depend on newspaper sources for information.
The Ministry of Education, which is responsible in Nigeria for formulating a national policy on education and also with a mandate to collect and collate data for purposes of educational planning and financing also has no website — except for a link on the official government’s site, detailing the curriculum vitae of the Minister of Education, Professor Rukkayat Rufai, and the minister of State, Barrister Wike Nyesom.
For a ministry with 21 agencies and departments under it, it should offer more than this. It is on platforms like theirs that researchers should find information about the number of students in public and private Nigerian universities. It is on their sites that opportunities for Nigerian students, including scholarships, should be readily accessible. It is on their site that outstanding thesis abstracts should be found and also the allocations and budget of such a key ministry.
But then, the students’ umbrella body, the National Association of Nigerian Students, which one would have expected to be a good example in social media deployment for educational use, is a far departure. The official site of the group at www.nans.edu.ng has had its hosting suspended. The Facebook page also has a paltry 4137 likes, with the last post being that of September 5, 2011. But then, this is not the NANS of Segun Okeowo, Olusegun Mayeigun, Lanre Arogundade, Chima Ubani and other principled comrades. The last time NANS had a semblance of decency was possibly when Daniel Onjeh was president. One can only imagine the mobilisation that a group like NANS under these previous leaderships would have robustly deployed social media for in the face of the present strike.
The welfare of students would have been a concern. In an age where several internship opportunities and vocational skills now abound, NANS would have put up information on how students across the country can link up with various platforms, including non-profits, to explore them, rather than risiking the attendant consequence of being idle.
There would also be great understanding of the issues behind the strike with the use of infographs on ASUU’s site and other social media space. Infograhics are a quick solution to enable data visualisation and possibly also a solution to the information overload coming from the knowledge that there has been various ASUU strikes. It is also more engaging and people love to share it. This is what ASUU also do asides its justified demand of billions of earned, merited allowances and infrastructure upgrade. It owes the public this responsibility